Chapters (21)
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Table of Contents
- Bright Young Things campus of Clarkwell College, graduation in the town of Clarksville, somewhere upstate, 1990
- Cool Days open mike night at Kafka-fe, after band "2 Much" plays, 1991
- New on the Scene utside in front of Club Hush, for a film screening party of Kill Fee, 1993 o
- Single in the City at a French bistro, 1995
- Hangover brunch, the morning after, 1995
- Natural Health a chance meeting at Jasper’s Yoga Studio, 1996
- The Fat Flush ’90s in the foyer of a friend’s renovated brownstone, 1997
- Art Stars at Bonwyck Gallery, 1998
- Inner Odyssey the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, 1999
- Life After Death facedown in the dirt of the desert, next morning, 1999
- Loyal Companions catching up at the dog run, 2000 catching up at the dog run, 2000
- In the Real World a run-in at the ShopShape magazine launch party sponsored by Senor Strawberry Liqueur, early 2001
- Wartime spotted at Kinko's, late 2001
- Office Job in the cafeteria of the Conde Nast building, 2003
- Settling a yard sale on an obscure block in the outer borough, 2003
- Starting Over in a remote village tavern on the farmlands of New Zealand, 2004
- Epilogue a gathering of friends
What are you going to do tonight? Sheila's gone, and Sam's got a big audition tomorrow, so he may be down for the count too. Sam's so funny. He always gets so nervous and intense when he prepares for a part, you know? I hope he gets this role. Good old Sam, following his dreams of being a big actor! I mean I believe in his talent, but I guess I'll have to be there for him through the tough times like I always have with all his difficult auditions and clingy girlfriends. He gets in over his head with one of them, then he always comes over to my place, sobbing and sad wanting to sleep over . . .
Me? No! Not at all, not at all. We're totally just close close close friends. I'm just the person he runs to when he's sad or upset. Poor Sam—it's so weird to be born with magnetism. His otherworldly, robin's egg blue eyes, his Greco-Roman statue stature, his broad shoulders and dark, worn-in leathery voice. It's so weird how people treat Sam differently just because he is beautiful. Being so close to him, I've learned so much about how to deal with the lookism and assumptions people place on beautiful people. I think he sees that in me, you know? That there is someone who sees there is more to him? I mean we've talked about it. You know, how there is this mutual attraction, how we are so compatible. Almost too compatible. But I'm just not interested in him like that. Like you were.
No, it's cool. Who wouldn't be? Sam's like one of those rare beautiful souls. But you know, that is what makes him so desirable to people, because he is so vulnerable and sensitive. He's real: he burps, he gets a pimple, and he gets sad. I've seen him cry, with me, over, you know, one of his girlfriends, or just looking at a sunset.
God, watch Sam and me totally end up together! Wouldn't that be hilarious? No way, no way.
Ha! Remember how you begged me to introduce you? We would see him at Wollman Hall, and I knew him from my Beaches, Coasts, and Rivers survey class, and you would stand next to me in your funny baggy blue painter's pants you always wore, dying to meet him. And remember you would wait in the waffle line at breakfast because he always got sausage there, and you would get big waffles every morning just so you could have a few moments to talk to him? So cute. I think that is totally where you gained your infamous "Freshman 15," don't you? Man you were so goofy then. But cool!
It's so dumb how you two never got along. I think he was just stoned that night at the Frosh Mixer when he called you "the Tagalong." I mean, sure, you do get along now, after all that awkwardness.